But not today, dear readers.  Today was all about simplicity, and most of all, quantity. It started off innocently enough, with inspiration from Taylor Takes a Taste – his beautiful photos of blueberry and green iced tea seemed just the thing for a slow, quiet day at home.  But whilst out shopping for blueberries, I thought, “Surely I can put the leftover blueberries to further use! I know! Humble Crumble! I need apples!” And whilst I was at it, I thought, “Gee, I really ought to make some breakfast. Apples + blueberries = quick apple danish!” So gathering together ye darling buds of blue, I set off home with blueberries, apples, and a bit of ricotta for some added fun, and set about my blueberry adventure.

The first thing I needed was a quick breakfast, so out from the freezer came the leftover puff pastry, and I set about thinly slicing apples, and carefully arranging them on very un-fussy, awkward squares of pastry with blueberries, a sprinkle of sugar, and a smattering of ricotta.  Into the oven, and 10 minutes later, voila! An absolutely gorgeous breakfast snack.

Next up, I set to work on Taylor’s disgustingly simple blueberry green tea.  So quick and easy to prepare, and I even used the left over blueberry pulp to make some blueberry ice cubes, which I thought might make for a fun, visual effect.

Later on, after watching half of this year’s BCS National Championship (yes, I am a proud Australian NCAA  jock!), I completed the trifecta with a delightfully easy humble apple, blueberry and orange crumble.  Ohhhh so good.

What a day. 3 ways with blueberry, and 3 levels of devine, juicy, culinary heaven.  And my guiltiest sin of all on this fine day?

I used frozen blueberries, and none would be the wiser.

Deliciously Quick Blueberry and Apple Danish

I stole the inspiration for this recipe from an old Gourmet Traveller.  The rules are simple: take frozen puff pastry, cover in pretty much any assortment of fruit, add other flavours as you like, sprinkle with sugar and bake. I have also used peaches, pears, almonds, brown sugar, and even slathered the pastry with jam before adding fruit.  These are pretty impossible to stuff up, which is why I love making them so much. My version of the recipe is below, and makes 2 danishes.

• 1/4 cup of blueberries
• 1/2 an apple
• 50g ricotta
• 1/2 sheet of puff pastry (cut into 15 cm x 15 cm squares, but you can cut it whichever way you like for decorative purposes)
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Take each square of pastry, and roughly assemble your apples – I did mine in a fan shape
2. Scatter the blueberries on top
3. Sprinkle each square with 1/2 tsp sugar
4. Crumble the ricotta over the top of each danish with your fingers
5. Bake in a hot oven (220° C) for about 10 minutes, checking to ensure they don’t burn.
6. Enjoy with smug satisfaction.

Disgustingly Simple Blueberry Green Tea

Whilst wandering around tastespotting.com this morning, I was absolutely taken by Taylor’s photos of blueberry green tea. The recipe seemed simple enough: make blueberry sugar syrup; add tea; refrigerate; enjoy. What easy refreshment!

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• enough green tea (or teabags) to make 2 litres of tea (this will depend on the brand of tea you have)
• a bunch of water (or, 2.25L if you’re so inclined)

1. Put the blueberries and sugar in a saucepan with 250ml (1 cup) water. If you are using frozen blueberries, heat on medium til the blueberries thaw. Once the blueberries are thawed, turn up the heat to high, and cook until the mixture is boiling.  Remove from heat, and allow to cool (10 minutes or so).
2. Boil 500ml (2 cups) water, add your tea (or teabags) and allow to steep for 10 minutes.
3. Using a fine mesh sieve, strain the blueberry syrup into a bowl, and use a spoon to mash all the juice out of the blueberries. Now add your lemon juice and stir.
4. Add your tea (removing tea bags, or, if you are using loose leaf tea, make sure you strain it), and stir.
5. Pour the whole thing into a 2L jug (or some other fancy vessel) and add 1.5L of water to your blueberry green tea mix. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
6. Enjoy ice-cold, and remark at your own cleverness.

Recipe courtesy of Taylor Takes A Taste – whose photos of the tea are MUCH nicer than mine!

Delightfully Easy Blueberry, Orange and Humble Apple Crumble

I stole the premise of this apple crumble from some food magazine or another quite a few years back, so I honestly can’t remember who to credit. The basis is you get a bunch of fruit you like (apples are the base, with whatever else you want to add – peach, rhubarb, blueberry, pear, berries etc), chuck it in a baking dish, and then squeeze orange over the whole thing before adding your crumble.  The orange gives everything a delightful, citrus zing, without being too overpowering.

• 4 sweet green apples (granny smith or similar), peeled, cored and cubed
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/2 orange
• 100g butter, cubed
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oats
• Other stuff such as walnuts, coconut etc if you so desire

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter the inside of a 1.5L baking dish.
2. Put your apples into the baking dish, and sprinkle the blueberries over the top. Mix roughly with your hands.
3. In a large bowl, put your flour, brown sugar, oats, and whatever other stuff you feel like, and mix together.  I added a sprinkling of shredded coconut, but you could also add walnuts, crushed biscuits etc, as you like.
4. Add the butter and rub the flour mix and butter between your finger tips until it all resembles breadcrumbs. You should not have any big chunks of butter left when you’re done.
5. Squeeze half an orange over the top of the apples and blueberries, and then sprinkle the crumble mix evenly over the top.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the crumble mix is golden brown (make sure it doesn’t burn though!). I usually wait until the fruit is bubbling out the top! Delight in the sweet, fruity, buttery smell that fills your home while it cooks.
7. Enjoy on its own, or with custard, ice cream or cream (my fave!), as you like. Tell your friends that this is your secret crumble recipe, and watch them swoon with satisfaction, all the while marvelling at your simple, orange-infused genius.

So there you have it, i8b-ers. A day of blueberry indulgence.  The best thing about this day is that I really feel I’ve done nothing at all, and yet, I’ve eaten fresh, home-cooked food all day with very little effort involved.

Have you ever had a ridiculous day of cooking based around a handful of simple ingredients? I’d love to know! Tell us in the comments!

And don’t forget about our “Win A Case of Punt Road Ciders” comp!

1. Pregnancy
2. The Munchies
3. Extreme Hunger

Sorry Mum-in-law – it’s not the first option.

Oh – NO! It’s not the 2nd one either!

Just a case of severe boredom and an empty stomach… and an equally empty fridge!

I don’t know what I was thinking but MAN this was delicious! Potato chips cooked in the oven, julienned granny smith apple and wasabi paste mixed with that CUTE Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise.  The bub and I ate it all up!

I think this is what makes this granita so flipping tasty. The apple and strawberry juice I used in the recipe ACTUALLY tastes like a newly-bitten apple. It’s uncanny! It’s probably the easiest recipe going (maybe excluding this one) but the flavour was just amazing. I served it as a dessert to Darren, my sister and daughter and it had us all ‘mmm’-ing and ‘ah’-ing. All over frozen juice!

So, here it is – so simple!  Pour some juice into a container or tray, drop in a few mls of rose water and chuck it in the freezer. Every 1/2 hour or so, shake it up, or crush the ice crystals with the back of a fork. Keep doing that until it’s fairly frozen, but still ‘loose’ - not a hard lump of ice! then leave it overnight to make sure the ice is nice and ‘dry’.

Also, break open a pomegranate and with your hands, pop each pomegranate aril (seed) from its fleshy cocoon. I used 1/2 of them over a moroccan curry (which I’ll post later) and then froze the rest of them – they freeze really well. I shook them up too to make sure they wouldn’t stick together once frozen.

Then, scoop a bit of the granita and a bit of the arils into a glass and serve immediately.

This is a very sexy dessert. It’s light and refreshing with those heady, aromatic flavours of rose and pomegranate and the pink blush of the granita. Just delicious!

Ingredients
1.5 cups Apple and Strawberry Juice
3ml Rose Water

1/2 Pomegranate Arillus (seeds)

However, most of the time I try to give my bub a healthy mix of fresh and homecooked food. I’m very lucky to have a little kid that enjoys food – she’s really accepting of new flavours. This wasn’t always the case. Everytime she would spit out food, I would get so frustrated and annoyed, and would show it. “I’m a good cook! I’ve spent so much time and effort preparing this meal, why won’t she eat it?!”  I spoke to another mum about meal times, and she said when she had food spat out onto her shirt, she would just accept it and not make a fuss. A lightbulb went on and I started doing that myself. I realised that most of the meal time frustration stemmed from me, not my child. Now this has been sorted out, I’ve found that if she does spit it out it’s usually got to do with the texture being to ‘advanced’ or chunky/grainy or that she simply is full and has had enough.

I have tried a couple of times to do big lots of meat and vegetables, steaming them all up and freezing them until needed. I find that she really isn’t interested in these foods as much as having the same dinner we are having that night, just pureed. However, I find it really handy to have the freezer lots in the fridge as a back up.

An apple snake! Being a Mum can be REALLY FUN!

A few lessons my daughter has taught me about feeding dinner to a little one is:

1. Don’t offer too much – it’ll never get eaten and will go to waste. If they are still hungry, then add more to the plate
2. If they won’t eat the food straight off the bat, it’s probably the texture that’s too course. Mash it up with a fork or stick blender a little more, and maybe add some water/milk/formula to smooth it out.
3. If this doesn’t work, sometimes… but very rarely, I will add a cube of this apple and pear puree to the mix to sweeten it. I try not to do this too often as it will condition them to expect sweetness in all their food. I only use this technique if really pushed!
4. If they don’t eat what is given to them, don’t offer anything else. I know – tough love. But it works, and my girl is nowhere near skinny!
5. If they turn their nose up at something, don’t worry,  try it again at a later date. They usually will try and love it eventually.
6. Don’t leave a full plate too close to them, unless you want a Picasso painting!
7. Once they’ve finished their meal – have a celebration together! “Hooray! Bubba ate all her food! YAaaay!”

So, here is my recipe for Apple and Pear Puree. It’s very tasty and a great thing to keep in the freezer for breakfast or morning or afternoon tea. For breakfast I often mix it with yoghurt, berries and rice cereal. Guarenteed to be eaten.

Apples
Pears
and that’s it!

Core them, Peel them, Chop them, Pop them in a saucepan on low heat. Cover. Leave to soften. Mash with a pototo masher, or puree with a stick blender for younger babies.